An increasing number of securities firms are marketing and offering securities-backed lines of credit, or SBLOCs, to investors. SBLOCs can be a key revenue source for securities firms, especially in times of solid market returns and growing investment portfolios, when investors may feel more comfortable leveraging their assets. Firms market SBLOCs as a type [...]

Interest rates affect the cost of your mortgage and credit cards, how much your savings grow, and the value of any bonds you hold. They also can influence growth in the overall economy. Interest rates are important in setting bond prices because changes in interest rates strongly influence changes in bond prices.

According to computer security experts, economic cyber-crime continues to surge. “Phishing” attacks — scams that use spam email or a fake website to lure you into revealing your bank or brokerage account information, passwords or PINs, Social Security number or other types of confidential information — have increased significantly since they were first discovered [...]

For several years now, the U.S. Department of the Treasury has offered bonds that can help protect against inflation. They’re called Treasury Inflation Protected Securities, or TIPS. The bonds are issued with maturities of five, 10 and 30 years, and can help shelter you from inflation risk because their principal is adjusted semiannually for [...]

If you are in your 60s and own your home, you have likely heard about reverse mortgages — or will soon. Reverse mortgages can be helpful to homeowners who want to stay in their homes but are having trouble keeping up with their mortgage payments, or who have no other source of funds to [...]

Every now and then investors transfer their securities accounts from one broker-dealer to another. While the transfer process usually runs smoothly for most of the thousands of accounts transferred every year, delays occasionally occur.

Here are answers to five questions that’ll help you better understand brokerage account transfers.

Investment fraud criminals use a wide array of sophisticated and highly effective tactics to target and influence potential victims. The truth is, you encounter these tactics every day because they are used by legitimate businesses, in retail stores and advertisements. But when fraudsters use them, the goal is to steal your money.